The Local Poet - Juanita Paulino

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The Poetry of Juanita Tice Paulino 2008 – 2010

Juanita Paulino grew up in Oshawa, Ontario the eldest daughter of Irish and English heritage. Her mother and father worked in the surrounding area; her mom being a Registered Nurse and her dad was a Machinist for the local Goodyear Tire and Rubber plant. Juanita remembers her father, coming home so tired and allergic to the rubber in the machine shop, and as she looked at his elbows and arms, they would be raw and bleeding from the reaction to the endless tires and rubber fixtures in the work environment.

As a child, Juanita loved to run. She would run in the neighbourhood forest next to her house and run in all the church picnics, just to come in the first in the race! If she wasn’t running, she was riding her old bike. It was a second-hand bike – way too big for her, but she learned how to stay on it and gradually grew into it’s compelling size. Hence the poem, My Dear Bike.

Juanita was a bit of a loner and found writing, helped keep her company. It was a solace, a retreat from her quarrelsome family. In his dying days, her father asked her to keep writing, since he believed it was a gift handed to her from his father, who use to write for the town newspaper in London, England.

Juanita has won several literary awards and it is with great pleasure, that we bring to you, the reader

Poetry Institute of Canada - Victoria BC

It is with great pleasure that your poem 24 Lines, has been chosen by our editorial committee, to be awarded first prize in our recent September, 2009 poetry contest for Canadian poetry and prose. Congratulations again, in winning our first prize. This is a great accomplishment, because we receive thousands of poems across Canada and publish only the best of them.